The present invention relates to a cooking utensil which includes a gas sensor for automatic cooking control purposes.
A microwave oven is proposed in my copending application Ser. No. 71,179, "COOKING UTENSIL CONTROLLED BY GAS SENSOR OUTPUT", filed on Aug. 31, 1979, wherein a gas sensor is disposed in an exhaustion duct for detecting a gas concentration developed from an oven cavity. When the gas concentration reaches a preselected value, the gas sensor output shows a preselected value, and in response thereto the microwave generation is terminated.
To achieve the automatically controlled cooking operation, the preselected value should be varied in response to the kind of foodstuff to be cooked. In addition to the automatic cooking operation controlled by the gas sensor output, it is preferable that the conventional timer controlled cooking operation be performed for a specific kind of cooking.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a novel selection system in a cooking utensil for selecting a desired operation mode of cooking.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cooking mode selection system of a simple construction and ensuring easy handling.
Other objects and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
To achieve the above objects, pursuant to an embodiment of the present invention, a slidable lever is provided on a control panel of a cooking utensil, for example, a microwave oven for selecting a desired cooking menu. In response to the selected cooking menu, a reference level, which is compared with an output voltage signal derived from a gas sensor, is varied to perform the automatic cooking control. When the slidable lever is slided to the end of the predetermined course of movement, the control circuit is placed in another mode of operation, wherein the cooking operation is controlled by an output signal derived from a timer.